TV Shows, now on the internet!

Here’s a genius quote from Jeff Zucker of NBC about iTunes and Apple:

“Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money,” he said. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.”

The price adjustment he’s looking for is an increase of one dollar/episode (other reports have claimed a three dollar increase). The hardware he’s talking about is the iPod, iPhone and Apple TV. The question remains, does the fellow who kills the chicken get a cut from the man who makes the oven? Does the gas station get a cut of every car sold? Does NBC get a cut of every DVD player and television sold? NBC’s new venture, Hulu.com, is destined to fail because they simply don’t understand who their audience is. They look at the success of YouTube and say “we can do that with our shows”. That’s where the understanding stops. Those who get content from the internet use the tubes as a delivery mechanism. It’s not the hub, it’s the spoke. Download and burn or download and transfer. This mentality isn’t required of YouTube because the clips are short, usually of the “viral” nature and user contributed. Watching a three minute clip on your computer isn’t a problem. A three minute clip is easy to embed in your own page and not a hassle to link to. People are willing to watch that clip in the name of sharing. The television is still the best device for watching, well, television shows. Hulu bypasses this logic and instead believes that you are willing to watch a 42 min. show like Heroes on your computer screen because you watched it on a 3″ iPod screen. They forget that that content is portable or can be watched on a Television via a dock hook up, or just plugging a freaking cable into your iPod. You can watch it on a plane, in a car or on the train. It’s that nature that makes iTunes shows and movies appealing. It’s go anywhere, do anything content. NBC obviously provides, and I hate to say this, value to an Apple iPod but it is not a prerequisite of functionality. You can add your own content. Pictures of friends, home movies, etc. For some, that’s all the value they seek from an iPod. Making their own content portable. You can rip a DVD and add it to your iPod and get your content from anywhere. TV on DVD, Movies what have you. No one corners the market when it comes to providing content for an iPod and the minute that someone thinks they do and disregards how you want that content, everyone, including NBC loses.